Vacasa, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCSA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Our next question comes from Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Doug Anmuth: Thanks for taking the questions. So, I just wanted to ask, I know that T.J. and Harish are probably like a month in Rob or maybe not even that far yet, but just curious if you could talk a little bit about some of the changes or the direction that you think perhaps the sales approach in tech and product need to go? Like how those could kind of evolve going forward, that would be helpful? Thank you.

Rob Greyber: Yes. Thanks for that. I think that — I think first of all, I’m delighted to have delighted to have T.J. leading the growth motions for the business. We’re lucky to have a deep bench leaders to call on, leaders like T.J. and others across Vacasa recall. T.J. was a founder at TurnKey, a co-founder of TurnKey and knows the industry very, very well. He’s a proven growth leader. He’s maintained deep relationships within the industry and he’s been very committed to the Vacasa team and to our vision. He’s got a broader track record across the online travel landscape in the roles that he’s held. So, we’re focused on making the changes that we need to be successful. We think T.J. has the industry experience, respective in the organization, clear plans to focus the team in our efforts and as well as a great core leaders under him to work with.

Similarly, Harish is a gifted technology leader. He’s built solutions in the B2C and the B2B space. And I think his customer focus, his customer-centric mindset is really going to help us to build on the advantage that we’ve created at Vacasa for the long-term.

Doug Anmuth: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Eric Sheridan: Thanks so much. Maybe two questions, if I can. First, following up on Doug’s question about the sales approach, is there a way that we should be thinking about normalized growth of supply away from this transition year? So, sort of elements of what you’re trying to solve for in terms of a sales force size and what it could contribute in terms of property growth on an annualized basis, so we could better understand sort of the normalization you might be trying to solve for there? That’s number one. And then number two on the local execution and sort of aligning local costs with growth dynamics. Can you give us a sense of how far along that process you are and how should we be thinking about elements of improved cost structure on the local operation side that you could still unlock as you look out over the next 12 to 18 months? Thanks so much.

Jamie Cohen: Yes. I can take both of those and add anything in, feel free.

Rob Greyber: Yes, go ahead.

Jamie Cohen: In terms of the home growth, so, there’s a few variables here to think through, Eric, as we look at 2023 specifically. One is that, we talked about that we would be meaningfully reducing portfolio spend this year. Second is that obviously we did the reduction in force, which Rob mentioned in the prepared remarks that did impact the sales organization by about 75 folks. In turn, there are ongoing changes to the individual approach, right? We have new leadership, we’re working on putting new processes in place, and unlocking productivity. And then finally, there’s the element of this recent elevated churn that we have been seeing, again, tied to rates and revenue in the ecosystem, doing what we tend to communicate with owners, but at the same time, we’ve also communicated that our expectation is that gross booking value per home will continue to be down throughout the course of this year.